re: Would Saban have the same success at other SEC schools?

At the level of Alabama now?

Probably not. Saban walked in to certain things at Bama that just don't exist at a place like South Carolina or Kentucky, or Arkansas...the REC, the size and quality of the facilities, the Dodge dealerships, etc.

Saban is an amazing coach, maybe the best ever, but he's benefited from a certain amount of institutional inertia and while it's only a fraction of his success it's a fraction that would be much weaker elsewhere.

He would be the best coach in our history, we might even win an NC, but he wouldn't have gone on a Bama level run.

At first glance it's easy to say yes, but I also believe there's something special about Alabama that doesn't exist at other places. The winning tradition at Alabama is unmatched by any southern school, and the fanbase wanted this more than any other

No... perfect storm at bama only

I remember listening to Bill King here in middle Tennessee every afternoon right after Saban was hired. He was merciless in his criticism of the UT administration for refusing to make needed changes and praised Mal Moore and Bama for, as he put it, pushing all their chips into the center of the table.

You have to have an administration and boosters that are 100% behind him and give him complete control. If you don't have that, he gone. Quick.

Yeah....kiffin blew the top off the "good ole boys" popsicle stand, and hasnt been the same.

The UT debacle the last decade has kind of been a good study in general to keep tabs on. Learn from. UT had 2 coaches, both UT players, in a 25+ year span...they didnt have the infrastructure/knowledge in place to handle the changes that have occurred. bamas down period was during that period of change with the internets coming up, spreading things out, and got lucky with saban. after richrod backed out....where would bama be if he didnt??

I do not think he could have the same success at Bama now, if he started today. It was a perfect storm for him. SEC Coaches at the time he came back was poor, with the exception of CUM. Very few elite QBs and UT was at the lowest point in their history. Ark started to have things going until BP let his dick get in the way. LSU had Miles and AU had a lazy TT as HC. All this enabled him to win early and get a strong foothold in recruiting. Saban would be successful whereever he coached, but not to the success he has experienced because of a perfect storm.

quote:

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Alabama has nothing else but Bama football. They pour everything they have into it. Trailers have been repossessed by the thousands in Alabama because season tickets just “had to be purchased”.

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Saban doesn't care about ticket sales or financial support. His success is in a vacuum.

I hear this he is a better coach now stuff. It's such bullshite. He took a dreadful Mich state team and had them winning 10 games. He took an LSU team that had hovered for decades in the middle or lower level of the sec and won a national championship.

When he came to Bama he did things the same way. He wasn't some, oh maybe he'll win. We knew we now had the best college coach. We would win, we would win big. Hell, we knew we'd hardly ever lose and be in the national title hunt every year. He was at a place where he had resources he'd never had. He had support he'd never had. He had a blueblood program now which he'd never had. This was going to be something we had never seen in college football. The day it became apparent he was coming, it might as well been a holiday. At work it was a Saban watch. Nobody did anything as we were busy getting radio reports on where he was. That night he went and got Julio Jones to commit and we were off to the races.

Not the same, but still a lot.

The main reason is I don't think the other schools would support and give everything that Alabama has given him.